Armageddon
by KCCM
Summary: The team has survived the apocalypse. But for how long will they manage to stay alive, with the Earth destroyed? And why is it, that they have to be attacked by an UNSUB now, of all times? Whole team-fic, but focus on Prentiss. Rated T (as the show). No pairings for now.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm back! I'm still so thankful for the response to my first story, so here you have another one! It's totally different, but I hope you like it just as much as the previous one. And if you want to know, Armageddon means (armageddon sounded so much cooler than 'the apocalypse'):**

**1. The scene of a final battle between the forces of good and evil, prophesied to occur at the end of the world. **  
**2. A decisive or catastrophic conflict. **  
**3. THE END**

**Let's get the disclaimer done with:**

**DISCLAIMER FOR ALL CHAPTERS: I do not own Criminal Minds nor its characters.**

* * *

**Prologue**

The day had started just like any other day. People walked their dogs, went to work and children went to school. No-one suspected anything, because, really, why should they?

The sun had been shining, casting its warmth and light on earth; earth that was only hours away from an event that was to change the world and its inhabitants forever.

Towards the end of the afternoon, when people were looking forwards to soon wrap up their days, the earth was suddenly struck by an earth-quake. Birds flew up from their nests, twittering upset, cats hissed, fur on end, and dogs whimpered, tails curled under themselves. People tried steadying themselves on walls or trees, buildings or cars. when their legs couldn't keep them upright anymore.

Weaker buildings collapsed, trees fell, and chaos broke loose.

As live feeds from excited news-reporters hit the televisions, panic spread across the nation. The earth-quake had an amplitude of 9.9, making it the strongest earth-quake in the history of mankind.

Not only had the whole eastern coast been struck by this sudden quake, but the whole nation. And many foreign TV-stations reported the same event in London, Paris, Stockholm, Rome, Moscow and Tokyo. The whole world had just witnessed a record-breaking earth-quake.

People panicked through an after-shake, and another one. Authorities tried calming the huge mass of people, but had little effect since they were just as scared and clueless as everyone else. After some time, the police managed to calm people down enough to be sent to their homes, clearing most streets, making cities look deserted.

And then, some hours after the initial disaster, another one struck the world. Volcanoes started erupting, sending pillars of fire, magma, lava and ash to the skies. The skies became dark, the ash making it hard to see the sun that was still trying to spread its rays down to earth.

Meanwhile, the seas revolted. Huge, enormous, deadly waves closed in on all shores. Their greatness was one never seen before, as they towered over innocent cities, only to crash down, effectively damaging and killing everyone in their ways.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over. The earth stopped shaking, the sea was calm, the post-tsunami waves were softly and peacefully flowing through cities and the volcanoes were still once again, nothing spouting deadly out from within. Only the leaves of the trees were moving, silently rattling in the cool breeze. The world had never been quieter.

* * *

CHAPTER ONE

Emily Prentiss had woken up bright and early as usual, and headed to work. She had met her friend and co-worker Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau on the way, and they had taken coffee to-go.

When they had entered the building of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the capital of the US of A, Washington, and taken the elevator together with another dear friend of theirs, Penelope Garcia, they had been greeted by the rest of their team.

Unit Chief, Aaron Hotchner, had an ever-present scowl on his face. David Rossi, famous for his books based on his experiences with serial killers, had been listening to the youngest member of the team, Doctor Spencer Reid, who was talking animatedly with his hands, no doubt trying to explain some complicated theory, that only he seemed to be able to understand. And by the looks of Derek Morgan, who was leaning against a desk nearby and looking utterly confused, Reid wasn't successfully getting his point through.

Everything about the start of the day had looked completely normal to Emily. They had been assigned a case with three murdered wives, but the case had many strong leads and they were already beginning to have a profile for the UNSUB by five o'clock. Emily wished every case would be this easy, but she had to admit, it would take the thrill out of their work if every case was this dull.

Then it happened, just as it happened to the rest of the world. The earth-quakes. Every-one was at their desks, taking the opportunity to get some paper-work done by the side of the easy case. The floor was suddenly shaking uncontrollably and people and things were falling down on the floor. People were screaming.

Emily instinctively plunged down under her desk, her hands over her head and waited for the earth-quake to subside.

When it had, she slowly crept up from her hide-out. The office looked like a mess. There was paper everywhere the eye could see people were slowly steadying themselves up, chairs and even some desks had fallen over.

She had quickly made her way over to Morgan and Reid's desks, wanting to make sure they were okay. "Reid! Morgan!You guys OK!?" She knelt down and let her eyes take in the shape of Reid. Her eyes didn't spot any damage and he confirmed her suspicion with a quick nod.

"Go check on Morgan, I heard him swearing."

Emily stepped up and ran past Reid's desk to where she saw the points of Morgan's shoes sticking out. He was sitting on the floor, holding one of is hands n the other and looking confused.

"What the hell was that?" He asked Emily when he spotted her. "You fine?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "You?"

Morgan sighed and explained that he hadn't thought of the idea to hide under his desk and had instead tried standing, which had resulted in him twisting his wrist when he had tried stopping the fall.

Emily chuckled slightly at his dumbness. She thought everybody knew that you had to hide when in an earth-quake and not stand up.

Morgan gave her an annoyed look as he stood up.

"Better find the other ones."

Emily, Morgan and Reid quickly made their way past a few agents creeping out of their hide-outs, looking utterly lost. They barged into Hotch's office and found him face to face with them.

"I was just going to come and check if you were okay." He spoke quickly, answered their wondering looks. "Where are the others?"

"We were just gonna check on everyone." Morgan said and everyone retreated from Hotch's office.

Rossi was making his way towards them, looking determined to get to them fast. Emily noticed that he was slightly limping.

After making sure he was alright, they ran over to JJ's office, and the other half of them ran towards Garcia's dungeon.

Five minutes later, the whole team was gathered around the round table in their briefing-room. They tossed around ideas to why they had been truck by an earth-quake. Reid quickly told them that this was a worrisome event, the quake was so strong.

Hotch made the assessment to send everyone home. He wouldn't normally, but he was eager to get home and see how his son was doing after this event.

* * *

"Hey Reid, how are you doing?" Emily answered her phone after the second ring.

"Prentiss!" Reid almost screamed, making Emily jump.

"What is it? Are you okay?" Emily furrowed her brow, trying to understand why Reid was sounding so panicked.

"Emily you need to listen to me. We really need to get out of the city. Now!" Reid spoke quickly. "I don't have the time to explain, just pack your bags and Sergio. Take only necessities, nothing unnecessary. Morgan's gonna be there in twenty."

Emily stared at her phone. Reid had ended the phone-call without even saying goodbye and he had sounded really weird.

Something in Emily's gut told her she should listen to Reid. It wasn't often he was wrong, but she couldn't help the uneasy feeling she had. As on cue, Emily's black cat Sergio was sitting in front of her, his yellow eyes watching her intently, meowing.

Emily didn't acknowledge him as she quickly moved upstairs. She grabbed the very handy go-bag she possessed through her work, and started packing in clothes. She packed mainly warm ones, as she had no idea where and why they were leaving, but she decided that if they were going somewhere warm, she could just take some layers off.

* * *

"What is all this about?" Emily asked Morgan as soon as she had sat down on the passenger's seat next to Morgan who had been honking at her to move faster.

"I really don't know." He truthfully said. "But I think we need to listen to Reid."

Emily bit her lip in confusion and stared straight ahead. This was really weird. The feeling of something being off was only doubled when she didn't see a single soul on the normally so busy streets.

Ten minutes later, they had picked up Garcia, Kevin and Reid too. Garcia was just as out of it as Emily was, and Reid failed to answer any of their questions. He only sat there, looking deadly pale.

"Is the car fueled?" He asked Morgan.

"Yep. It's full."

"Good. We're up or a hell of a drive. And I suggest you pick up the speed, Morgan."

They had been driving for three hours, and Emily was getting angry. No-one had told her what this was about, and she really needed to pee. She had tried to sleep but couldn't, and now her stomach was growling loudly too. To add to that she noticed a similar car to theirs had been following them ever since they left Quantico.

"I think that car is following us." She said out loud and pointed backwards.

"Oh no that's just the others." Reid said.

"Who?" Emily couldn't help sounding like a child who had missed her nap.

"Hotch, Jack, JJ, Henry and Will."

"What are we doing, Reid?" Emily furrowed her brows and turned around in her set to better see him.

"Uh-" Reid's eyes darted everywhere but on her.

"You really need to tell us." Garcia didn't have the strength to be her usual bubbly self at the moment, o she only looked at Reid with a rare, serious look on her face.

"You're right, I will. But everyone needs to hear this." He said, looking down at his hands.

"There's a little restaurant." Morgan said and pointed forwards. "We can stop there, eat something and take some petrol."

* * *

Once everyone was sitting around a big table and had been served, Reid started fidgeting with his hands in his lap, as he always did when he was nervous. He looked around the table. Jack was sitting next to his father, eyelids heavy, looking ready to sleep. Henry was sitting in JJ's arms, already asleep. All of the adults were eying him suspiciously.

"So?" Morgan pried impatiently.

"Well..." Reid stared, unsure about how to put what he was about to say. "When Hotch let us all go home, I did some research about the earth-quakes."

"Figure." Garcia rolled her eyes, but nobody took notice of it.

"I don't know what caused it, but I do know what'll happen now."

Everybody shared a look of confusion, confirming from each others that anyone else didn't understand more than they did.

"Yeah?" Emily asked, anxious about finding out why Reid had dragged them all the way to no-where.

"Tsunamis are going to hit the east coast any minute now." He said, looking own at his untouched plate.

"What!?" Everyone echoed.

"Tsunamis big enough to kill everyone within ten miles from the coast."

A heavy silence fell upon the table. Emily's stomach churned painfully and she put her fork down on her plate with a loud clink! That seemed much louder in the silence.

"I don't believe you." She looked Reid defiantly in the eye.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by the waitress turning up the volume of the little dusty television in one corner of the room.

"_-super-volcano in Yellowstone has just erupted. Yellowstone is being evacuated as we speak, I suggest you stay-_"

Emily eyed the television as a man talked to them frantically waving his hands. She caught herself staring at it with her mouth hanging open, and she quickly closed it and looked back at Reid.

"How did you know?" She asked him silently.

"That doesn't matter right now.." Reid shook his head.

"Reid..." Morgan croaked out. He was looking deathly pale, scared as hell. "My mother, sisters-"

"I'm sorry, Morgan." Reid seemed to shrink in his chair. "There was no way they'd make it."

Morgan hit the table, efficiently waking both Jack and Henry, and stood up. He walked angrily to the door and disappeared without even looking back.

"Let him go." Hotch flatly told Emily as she made a gesture to follow Morgan. "He needs time."

Twenty awkward, silent, grief-filled minutes later, they payed for their food and walked to the cars. Emily looked up to the sky, but she didn't see any stars as she had expected to. Everything was dark and she felt so overwhelmed she felt the whole world spinning, and had to sit down.

She sat there, her head in her hands, but without shedding a single tear. She thought about the millions, billions of people who had died today, but not a single sob escaped her lips. Not even when she thought about her family, but then she only had her mother, with whom she didn't have the best of bonds with, she thought of her friends, but she felt only emptiness.

Suddenly an arm settled around Emily's shoulders, and she looked up into Reid's pained face. He had cried, she instantly saw it on him.

"I'm sorry." He mouthed, barely audible.

"It's not your fault." Emily said and forced a smile at him.

"Do you think Morgan will be okay?" Reid asked her warily.

"I honestly don't know." Emily shrugged. "Will we ever be?"

* * *

**Please REVIEW, it really helps getting my motors running! And gets me posting new updates quicker! So I cannot stress how much I love your reviews! And favorites and follows!;)  
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	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Yey thanks so much for all of your reviews, favorites and follows! It means so much!**

**Yeah lk I have no idea what I'm doing! But as long as y'all like it!**

**Special thanks to my awesome grandma for betaing this chapter! (You're THE best)**

* * *

CHAPTER 2

The small group of people had once again squished themselves into the two government SUVs, exhausted from their long travel and from the weight that was hanging on their shoulders. It had taken a while, but Morgan had eventually come back, his eyes puffy and red.

Everyone seemed oddly distant, except for Jack and Henry, who weren't able to understand the severity of the situation they were in.

They had traveled a long way up to the mountains, hoping to escape the oceans that were hungrily swallowing the land. At last, when everyone's eyes were threatening to close, they had come by a little motel in the middle of nowhere. The host had been kind enough to not charge them anything for the rooms, stating that he had no other clients anyway and in times like these everyone should try to help as much as they were able to.

Hotch, who had taken the role of the leader (quite obviously), had stated that they would gather in the morning to figure out a game plan. When Morgan had been resentful, Hotch had firmly told him that everyone was too tired tonight to try and make any decisions, they should sleep it off and come back fresh tomorrow morning.

Emily had gone to bed, feeling nothing, and tried to get some sleep before the day would dawn. But now her eyes refused to close, even though they had been the ones insisting on closing every minute in the car. She had just lain there, on her side, staring out of the black window.

Thankfully, by three am she had managed to get some rest. Her sleep wasn't peaceful, no, it was quite the opposite. She had been tossing around in her sleep, and waking up every once in a while, covered in a cold sweat.

By the time Spencer had come knocking on her door, Emily saw him as some kind of savior and she gladly jumped out of bed, tossing on a pair of jeans and a blue sweater she fancied for outdoor activities, as she fathomed that was what they were going to be doing.

She walked the short distance down the hall to the small, deserted, wooden lobby and out of the door.

Hotch, Will, Kevin, Morgan, Reid and Garcia were already gathered in a circle, their faces gloomy, discussing something very serious. Emily walked up to them, seeing that up close no-one looked like they had gotten much sleep, and she figured she looked as dreadful herself.

"Where are Jayje, Henry and Jack?" Emily asked, noticing the absence of the two children and the blonde.

"JJ stepped up and told me she'd take Jack and Henry to play while we figured out what to do next." Hotch opened up, looking like he hadn't slept a bit last night.

"Oh." Emily nodded. "So, what's the plan?"

"Should we go back down to DC?" Will asked.

"No, we can't know what the city looks like, I think our best chance would be staying at a high altitude for a while." Morgan reasoned.

"But where are we going to stay? We can't stay here for many weeks?" Garcia asked.

"I have a cabin, big enough to house all of us." Rossi offered. "But it is pretty far from from here."

"I think we should go there, and wait this out." Hotch thought. "Then, a few of us can go down and check the city out."

"Only problem is, we don't have food." Kevin opened his mouth for the first time.

Everyone went silent, and Emily almost hoped Kevin wouldn't have said anything. But he _was _right, they had no food.

"Maybe we can hunt?" Emily asked. "There must be something in these woods." She made gesture towards the huge wave of green spreading out around them to emphasize her point.

"We'll figure it out." Rossi said confidently. "I've got some canned food at my place too, maybe enough for a couple of days while we figure things out."

Everyone nodded and they instantly separated. Hotch and Will probably to search for JJ and the kids, Kevin and Garcia walked a few feet away from the rest, talking quietly. Emily started walking, kicking occasionally at stones that were in her way. She breathed in. She had always loved the scent of the forest. It was somehow so clean, fresh-smelling that she could never get enough of it and it cleared her head like no amount of coffee could ever hope to.

* * *

Mountains towered up around her, judging her and casting their shadows over her and everyone else. Emily felt so small and vulnerable, standing there, having to crane her neck just to get a good look at the mountains. She shivered. The wind bit her cheeks, and she hugged her chest, trying to keep warm.

The sounds of footsteps on the gravel stopped Emily in her tracks and she turned around.

"How you doing?" Morgan asked without looking at her. He stopped next to her, staring off into the distance.

"I've never really appreciated the beauty of nature before," he mused without waiting for an answer.

"Me neither." Emily said and looked up at the mountains again.

They stood there, quiet for a couple of minutes, just taking comfort in each others' presence.

"Did you get hold of them?" Emily suddenly asked him. He tore his eyes away from the trees and focused them on Emily. It hurt having to look into his eyes, it was like looking right through a window into his soul. Emily was shocked by how filled with sadness the once joyful brown eyes now were. Morgan watched her silently for a couple of seconds, then looked down at his feet.

"No," he said, his voice cracking slightly.

Emily sighed. She didn't need to explain that by 'them' she had meant Morgan's mother and sisters, he knew it by the tone of her voice.

And he didn't have to tell her that when he had stormed out yesterday, he had tried calling his family.

"I'm so sorry." Emily apologized, not knowing what to say. She knew her words could never bring Morgan's family back nor heal his wounds.

"Yeah." Morgan said and swallowed. He blinked away his tears, before he turned around. "Probably best we get back to the others." He murmured.

Emily watched Morgan walk away. He had a sort of tired, hopeless energy and Emily silently worried about him. She knew he considered the team his family, but they couldn't weigh up to what he'd lost.

Emily sighed and followed him. This was going to be a long couple of weeks.

* * *

The group separated so that they would fit into the cars, Garcia, Kevin, Reid, Emily and Morgan in one car and Hotch, Jack, JJ, Henry,Will and Rossi in the other.

Emily offered to drive, since she didn't want Morgan to drive again and she didn't completely trust him in his fragile state of mind. Reid apologized, saying he didn't like driving on small, crooked roads in the forest. Garcia told Emily not to trust her nor Kevin to drive under any circumstances.

So Emily drove, tailing the other SUV, since only Rossi knew where his cabin was. Emily shivered at the thought of Rossi's cabin. She still had the movie Cabin in the Woods fresh in her mind from last weekend when she, JJ and Garcia had had a horror-movie evening. She silently prayed Rossi's cabin would just be an ordinary, nice, calm cabin. In the woods.

* * *

Five hours later, Emily was too tired to drive any longer. She would have liked to continue, but her more rational side told her she needed to stop.

Her whole body ached. The sun had set a long time ago, and the night was as calm as it ever could have been. Everyone had fallen asleep in the car, comforted by its warmth and slow humming of the engine.

Reid was sitting on the passenger's seat, his head resting against the cold window, his breath fogging up a small area of it next to his mouth.

Emily looked through the rear-view mirror and saw Garcia leaning up against Kevin, her mouth hanging open, while Kevin rested his head on hers. Morgan wasn't sleeping, though, Emily noticed. He was staring out of the window, not moving, and Emily would have thought he was asleep if it wasn't for his eyes glimmering in the faint light of the moon.

Emily flashed the headlights of the car twice, hoping to get the other car's attention. She did, and the car pulled up and came to a stop. Emily stopped behind it, and got out. Hotch and Rossi met her halfway.

"What is it Prentiss?" Hotch asked, one of his eyebrows shooting halfway up his forehead.

"I can't drive, I'm too tired." Emily explained, slightly slurring her words, even her mouth was tired.

Hotch and Rossi glanced at each other before Rossi spoke out.

"Have someone else drive."

"I can't, they're all sleeping." She half-lied, not wanting to disturb Morgan.

"Oh," was all Rossi said.

Emily looked over at Hotch. His eyes were looking at a point a bit to the left of Emily's right shoulder, apparently deep in thought. Then he seemingly found a conclusion to his inner dialogue, and he said,

"Let's rest for the night. We've still got a few hour's trip, we can start bright and early and should be there by noon."

Emily nodded and watched the retreating backs of the two men as they walked back to their car. She was left standing there, in the midst of the cold, dark road, all alone.

She looked up at the sky, as she had done last night, not sure what she was hoping to see, but she saw nothing. Not a single star was to be seen, Emily guessed it was because of the ash that was bound to rise when Yellowstone erupted. It had surely spread all the way to the east coast by now, driven by the strong winds.

"What are we doing?" Emily turned around and saw Reid standing a few feet from her, watching her intently.

"Stopping for the night," explained Emily. "I'm too tired to drive." She let out an apologetic sigh.

"Right," Reid said and looked up at the sky, letting out a small sigh as well.

"What do you the city is going to look like?"

Emily stayed silent for a minute, weighing her answers. None seemed good enough, so she shrugged. "Dunno."

Reid read her bluntness as tiredness, and proposed they head back to the car. Emily agreed, her tiredness suddenly enveloping her, heavy as a wave.

* * *

Next morning, Emily woke up to an irritating ray of sun. She moaned and turned over, trying to escape the piercing source of light. Her body was slow to obey and seemed much heavier than normal. Still, lying on her side with an arm over her face, her surroundings seemed too bright, and she reluctantly opened her eyes.

At first, Emily didn't know where she was, but then everything that had happened these last forty-eight hours crashed down on her. She slowly sat up in her seat, her body protesting, feeling stiff and aching. She mentally cursed herself for not having remembered to lower the back of her seat. Sleeping in a sitting position had never suited her.

"See you're up." Garcia greeted her, smiling weakly.

"Yeah."

"Are we there yet?" She asked Emily, sounding like a child. Realizing this, Garcia shot an apologetic smile at Emily.

"No, we had to stop, we've still got a few hours left." Emily said, and checked her wrist-watch. It said 7:30am.

Emily looked up and saw that the other car was still parked in front of her, and she excused herself to Garcia and left her car.

The other car looked as if there was no-one in it, but when Emily approached it she could make out the sleeping forms of her colleagues through the tinted window.

She tapped gently on Hotch's window, and he jerked at the sound. Seeing Emily, he silently opened the door, not wanting to disturb the others.

"I thought we ought to leave."

Hotch made a attempt to look at the clock, but Emily beat him. "It's seven thirty."

"Yeah. Thanks. Slept well?"

"No." Emily smirked and Hotch almost smiled.

"Right. Just follow me." He said and walked up to his car again.

Emily nodded and went to start hers as well.

They rode in silence, no-one wanting to break it, since they really didn't know what to talk about. The silence wasn't exactly uncomfortable though. The drive was long, and Emily started feeling a dull ache in her arms and shoulders from driving for so long these past days, but she didn't complain. Complaining wasn't something she did.

* * *

At about ten o'clock, the little orange light that indicated that the SUV needed fuel lit up. Emily silently cursed. The had filled up the car yesterday morning, they couldn't be out of fuel already. But then again they had driven a considerable amount of miles _and _the car had been running the whole night to give them warmth.

Half an hour later, the SUV started slowing down, even though Emily had tried driving it as smoothly as she possibly could. Finally, it came to a halt. Emily swore and honked several times for the car in front of her to stop, but it didn't. Maybe Hotch and the others were listening to music, or maybe they were just simply too far away to hear, either way, they didn't stop.

"Is there some spare fuel somewhere?" Emily turned around to face the passengers.

"It's in the other car." Morgan said grimly.

"Why would it be there?" Emily asked with an edge to her tone.

"I don't know Prentiss!" Morgan's voice rose. "I didn't pack these cars! Hotch and Rossi took the fuel since theirs was almost out already!"

"What are we going to do now, then, huh? They are already far gone with _our _fuel!" She motioned to where the other car was to be seen as a little black dot, sneaking its way up the road almost ant-like.

"_I don't know_!" Morgan said offended, throwing his hands up in the air in defeat. "Stop shouting at _me_!"

Reid shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hated when people argued. Fortunately for him, just as Emily was about to open her mouth to fire back at Morgan, Garcia hastily spoke out.

"Don't forget technology."

"And what does _that _mean!?" Emily snapped at her, irritated.

"We still have our phones." Kevin calmly stepped up.

"And you guys seriously think they're working after all that's happened?" Morgan asked sceptically.

"It's worth a shot, right?" Reid quickly said, glad they had come up with something.

Garcia pulled out her phone. The small group was silent for a couple of seconds, waiting for her to confirm if the phone was working or not.

Emily snorted, irritated. "_So_?"

"Sadly we are never even going to find out if it would have worked." Garcia said mysteriously.

"Why?" Morgan asked, his voice still annoyed but now curious as well.

"Ain't got no bars." Garcia rolled her eyes at the situation.

The atmosphere in the car instantly became even more irritated and anxious -if possible. Emily banged her head against the steering wheel, making the car shout out in a loud, prolonged honk. She hated this situation more and more with each passing second.

* * *

**So? Any thoughts on this one? Care to review?;) Pretty please?  
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	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm so sorry for not updating as frequently as I did with Jobs for the Boys... But thank you for the reviews and follows! They make my day, so please do continue! Even the tiniest comment is valued!  
**

**So here's the next chapter, a bit shorter than the previous ones but I'm not feeling as creative, but that doesn't matter, since things are starting to happen now... muahahah!**

* * *

CHAPTER 3

Emily couldn't believe her eyes as she watched the black SUV creep away in the distance and slowly disappear amongst the many green hills. She and the rest sat silently for a few minutes, gaping at the spot where the others' car had vanished.

Kevin was the first one to come back to his senses. He cleared his throat.

"Should we stay here or start walking along the road?"

Everyone was silent, thinking about what to answer. If they'd start walking, Hotch and the others would find them sooner, but then the nights in the mountains were never warm. But they'd be cold if they stayed in the car too, and it'd take longer for the others to reach them.

"I think we should go."

"I think we should stay."

Garcia and Morgan said at the same time, making everyone chuckle slightly.

"What do you think, Reid?" Emily turned to face Reid next to her.

Reid sat silently for quite a while, before he finally said, "At night the temperature can drop to only about five degrees, so it can be pretty cold if it's windy as well. We don't know when Hotch and the others are going to notice we're not following them, so it's hard to say." He frowned. "But I'd say stay though."

"So we stay?" Garcia asked the group, sounding relieved.

Everyone agreed, some more reluctantly than the others.

* * *

The day passed slowly, and seemed even more slow when they lacked things to occupy themselves with. Thankfully Reid had brought a mini chess-set with him, and he played against everyone in turns. He easily beat Morgan and Kevin, Garcia he beat with a little more difficulty, but Emily beat him seven times in a row.

Finally, bored with the game, Emily retreated to the car and read a bit. At around five o'clock, they ate a little meal, mostly consisting of apples and bread they had brought with them from the little motel.

Emily read a bit more, and then she joined the others in their conversation. Thankfully, the next hours weren't quite as long as the previous ones and soon the sun was gleaming red in the horizon.

The group agreed that they were going to need wood in order to make a fire and warm up slightly before the night. Emily and Reid offered to go and search in the woods nearby, the others would start to organize the things they might need while waiting, they might have to wait a day or two if they were unlucky.

Emily and Reid walked a small distance away from the car. The sun was starting to set, casting weird-looking shadows on the trees and other objects, making them look grotesque and odd. The agents had to squint in the faint light that was even fainter under the huge, old trees.

"Ouch!" Reid's voice pierced the silence, sounding oddly loud in the silence that had surrounded them so far.

"What is it?" Emily asked, alarmed, and dropped the branches she had been carrying.

"Nothing," Reid said when he saw Emily hurrying over. Emily could see him slightly blush.

"It was something," Emily insisted and put her hands on her hip.

"Something just stung me when I lifted a branch," Reid explained and showed Emily his finger, where a little droplet of blood had already pursed through his skin.

Emily squinted in the darkness, trying to see better.

"But it's probably nothing," said Reid quickly, pulling his finger away from Emily's grip.

"Well, let's head back to the car and make sure it's not some kind of bite or anything." Emily said, turning away. "I think we got enough wood anyways."

* * *

After a while, Morgan had been able to set fire to the branches Emily and Reid had got for them. Garcia, Kevin, Morgan, Reid and Emily were now sitting around the sparkling fire. It was nice, since the fire cast light and warmth upon them, which was a good contrast to the darkness and cold that was threatening to well in around them from behind.

The little group sat in a comfortable silence, just listening to the fire crackling. The wood was slowly turning into coal, which would soon become ash.

"You think they've noticed we're not behind them already?" Garcia broke the silence, referring to the other group.

"All we really can do is hope." Morgan shrugged. "I don't really like these woods."

Emily silently agreed.

* * *

Soon, Garcia had fallen asleep, leaning against Kevin, as had he, while Emily, Morgan and Reid were trying to fight sleep. Emily's eyelids felt heavy, and the warmth of the fire wanted to embrace her, rock her into sleep, making a shiver run along her body. It would be so nice to just fall sleep right here... she thought, but pried her eyes open again, rubbing them as they began to itch.

Morgan and Reid were having a hushed discussion, they talked too silently for Emily to hear. She sank down further against the rucksack she was leaning against. Just as she was about to fall asleep for good, she heard a branch snap in the woods behind her.

Suddenly alert, she opened her eyes and looked around. It was hard to adjust her eyes, and she saw nothing move in the midst of the dark, still trees. Maybe it was just a rabbit, she thought and looked away.

"Goodnight folks." A voice suddenly startled them. It sounded raspy, as if its owner had drunken and smoked for an excessive amount of time.

Emily started and turned around. She was looking at three men and a woman. The men were wide-shouldered, and all of them wore similar red jumpers. The woman wore tight-fitting jeans that were too tight for her and a black leather jacket. Emily locked eyes with her and the woman smiled a deformed smile. Emily was shocked to see that she was short of many teeth.

"Sorry if we scared you," The same man who had talked earlier said. He was the biggest of all three men and looked the meanest thanks to his small eyes. He sounded everything but sorry.

"Can we help you?" Morgan asked them. Emily could hear in his voice he was alarmed, but he didn't show it.

"Oh yeah, I think you can." The same man drooled, his voice sleazy, his little eyes looking around the camp, lingering on their bags and finally landing on the SUV.

Morgan's eyebrow shot up, giving him a questioning look.

"We is short of a few things," The man to the left said, smiling a one-sided grin. Emily's eyed him a second longer because of his grammar. He didn't look to bright, but he sure didn't lack muscles, and Emily found herself stiffening, ready to move. Something about these people made her nervous.

"Oh yeah?" Morgan asked and shot a quick glance at Emily, and she saw the worry in his eyes.

"Oh yeah." The muscle-man repeated. His eyes following Morgan's and settling on Emily. He took her in, and then he smiled once again. There was definitely something off with him, Emily thought.

"We wondered if we could look through your good folk's bags," The woman spoke out for the first time, reminding Emily strongly of a fox because of her fox-like face.

"I don't think so," Morgan said and stood up, Reid following his example behind him.

"Wass 'appening?" Garcia slurred and rubbed her eyes. "Who are those?" She asked when she saw the men and the woman. Kevin was awake now too next to her, holding his hand around her protectively.

"Let's calm down now," The first man spoke, holding his hand up to stop the dumb one and the one who had yet to speak. Standing behind the men, the woman still stood still, smiling.

"We'd like you to leave now, please." Emily said with as much authority she could muster and stood up.

"You do?" The man asked her.

"Yes."

"I don't think so," He said and walked over to Emily and picked up the bag she'd been lying on.

He opened it and started pulling out things. They were Reid's clothes. The man crinkled his nose as if in disgust and threw the bag away.

"Anything better you're hiding?" He asked Emily and she felt like being sick. The man's breath smelled like rotten fish.

Before Emily could react, Morgan had snapped and threw himself over the man. They yelled and fell to the floor. Reid tried tackling the dumb one, while the third man growled and ran at Kevin and Garcia. Emily made a turn to help them, but someone pulled her hair.

She spun around and stood face to face with the snarling woman. Emily grabbed hold of her wrist and twitched it, making the woman gasp in pain and release her hold of Emily's hair. But then she recollected herself and punched Emily in her stomach, sending a jolt of pain up Emily's gut. Emily released her grip on the woman's wrist, in which she took advantage of and lapped Emily hard in the face.

Emily grunted and send her knee up the woman's stomach. She yelped like dog and tumbled backwards. Suddenly Emily's head exploded in pain and she fell down next to the woman, small bright spots dancing around before her eyes.

Someone kicked her onto her back. Emily gasped for air and managed to roll herself onto her stomach and jump up, still not seeing correctly.

She saw Reid on the ground, moving slightly, Morgan still trying to gain the upper-hand with the man who appeared to be the leader and Garcia helping a shaken Kevin onto his feet. As if Garcia felt Emily's stare, she met it and quickly shouted,

"Emily, watch out!"

Emily turned on her heels and saw the man who had remained silent walking angrily closer, cracking his knuckles, the woman hot on his heels.

Emily dodged his blow, and sent one herself at him, but missed. He hit again, this time reaching his target. Pain blossomed in Emily's shoulder, but she was occupied keeping the woman away from herself.

She managed to send three blows at the woman, but then she was distracted when Morgan howled in pain, and the man managed to hit her in the side, making her stumble.

The woman pushed her, and Emily tripped.

Her attackers didn't touch her, though, as they were walking towards Reid. Emily met his panicked stare and she forced herself to stand up.

"Hey!" She shouted against her better judgment. "I'm still here!"

Her plan worked, though, when the man and the woman turned around to face her again. Emily limped towards them holding her side.

The man and woman looked merely annoyed, as the man picked up a heavy, thick stick he found on his path, and smiled wickedly at Emily.

Before she could act, the woman pounced on her. Emily managed to divert her blow, but then she felt a huge wave of pain shoot like fire through her body and went limp.

* * *

**I hate to repeat meself but please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you for the awesome reviews and follows and favorites! Here's without further ado, chapter four!**

* * *

CHAPTER 4

"Stop!"

"Uh..." Emily moaned. Her head was throbbing painfully and she was lying on something hard and uncomfortable. She could hear shuffling footsteps all around her. She sluggishly lifted an arm over her head to protect it from the creatures making the noises.

"No!" Someone shouted again. Emily wished they would stop screaming; it hurt, like the voice that was screaming was enforced ten times and screaming right into her ears.

"Let him go!" Oh, the voice was Penelope's, Emily realized. But she sounded so frightened and small. Emily wished she could help her.

Taking a shaky deep breath in, Emily opened her eyes. They refused to focus and Emily blinked helplessly a few times. She could make out moving persons, but nothing more. Emily squeezed them shut, and then reopened them. This time it worked!

She was lying on the ground, facing the bonfire they had made. The flames were still crackling merrily, licking the wood and warming Emily's face pleasantly.

But behind the fire, she realized, after having adjusted her eyes once again, were two men moving around. _No, _they were _dragging _someone around. Emily gasped and realized it was Kevin, and he looked unconscious.

Emily could sense Garcia, who was just a few feet from her, just out of Emily's sight. Next to Garcia was a woman, inside of Emily's vision. Emily had never seen- but oh yes she had. It was the same woman who had attacked Emily and the rest with the three men. It all came back to Emily, and she squinted her eyes trying to see where Morgan and Reid were.

A few seconds later she understood why she hadn't seen them; they were behind the two men dragging Kevin towards them, and they were apparently tied up to a tree or something. Morgan had a cut on his forehead and the right side of his face looked swollen, but Emily couldn't see anything else wrong with him. Reid's lip was cut and it was bleeding down on his chin, but otherwise he looked sound.

But... that left someone. The leader. Where was he? Emily looked around, and had to once fake unconsciousness when one of the men - the dumb one looked at her, but she couldn't spot the man. Maybe he was going through their SUV in the hope of finding something valuable.

* * *

Emily had to help the others somehow. The question was how? There were three grown men and a woman against her, well, maybe against her and Garcia if she could make Garcia help her, but Emily knew she wouldn't be too much help anyway. Garcia's place was in front of a computer-screen, not in the field.

Emily moved her hands cautiously. They weren't bound. Then she moved her feet. They weren't bound, either, so that meant she could move around freely.

Emily started thinking of a plan in her head. She knew she was strong, but she wasn't delusional; she wouldn't possibly overcome all of their offenders. That left her with one other option. Distract their attackers and free Morgan and Reid.

If she only could communicate with Garcia... Emily moved ever so slightly on the ground, positioning herself so she could easily see Garcia.

The woman was sitting on a trunk of a tree, shaking violently and crying. Emily opened her eyes and stared at Garcia, hoping she would notice her staring. But Garcia was to wrapped up in her own misery to notice anything else.

Emily bit her lip. This was going to be harder than she thought. She studied the ground around her, and was almost thrilled to see there were plenty of small stones around her.

She slowly picked one up, careful not to get caught, and threw it as silently as she could. But she missed her mark easily.

So Emily picked up another one, and threw it. This time she hit her target. The stone bounced off Garcia's head and fell to the ground.

Garcia flinched, moved her hand to her head and looked at Emily's direction. She caught Emily's eyes, and Emily began to mimic.

_Make noise. I go get the guys._

_Make noise. I go get the guys._

_Make noise, I go-_

Garcia nodded, eyes wide open. Emily nodded at her once and smiled reassuringly.

Garcia swallowed and seemed to collect herself. She then violently stood up and walked quickly a few steps backwards.

"Hey! Hey!" She screamed. "You big pigs!"

The woman and the two men looked curiously up at Garcia.

Emily nodded more at herself than Garcia. _If Garcia only could make the men come to her..._

Garcia seemed to think similarly, as she screamed,

"Hey, you two! What do you think you're doing to my friends! Come here so I can teach you not to mess with me!"

The two men looked at each other, and smiled. Emily knew their ego would get the best of them, narcissists like them could never resist a challenge when they got one.

They started walking towards Garcia, menacing looks on their faces, and Emily silently prayed Garcia could hold them off for just a minute.

"Oh I wanna see this!" The woman screamed and turned her full attention to the scene in front of her.

* * *

Emily realized it was now or never. She stood up, but couldn't move for a second, her vision becoming black. She stood swaying for a second or two, waiting for the dizziness to fade, before she began sneaking around the camp. The men and woman were focused on Garcia, shouting villain words at them, but Emily couldn't see the third man anywhere. That bothered her. He seemed to be one to want to control everything.

Morgan's and Reid's eyes were trained on Emily as she carefully made her way to them. They looked with concern as she stumbled on a branch, but no one seemed to no notice.

Three meters left... two... one... she made it!

Emily fumbled with the knots on Morgan's wrists. They were bound together with Reid's, with some very tight knots. One of the Unsubs had to be familiar with boats, because no normal person could make knots like-

"Ahh!" Someone had sneaked up from behind and grabbed a bunch of Emily's hair and was now pulling her away from Morgan and Reid from it.

"Leave her alone!" Morgan roared and pulled at his restraints, but to no avail.

Emily fought the unknown force dragging her away, but she couldn't make the iron-grip loosen. Someone lifted her up on her feet from her hair. The force pulling at her hair brought tears to Emily's eyes.

"Don't even think about it!" Someone breathed down Emily's neck.

Emily brought her elbow in the unknown subjects gut, making him grunt in pain, but loosen his grip of her.

Emily swirled around and stood face to face with the third man, the one she hadn't seen anywhere. She brought her fist up in the mans jaw, making his teeth clatter.

"You little-" the man said and hit Emily in her stomach. Emily, already in a bad shape, swirled backwards, seeing stars. The man took advantage of Emily's hesitation and pushed her off her feet.

Emily fell down hard, hitting her hand, her back crashing against the ground.

The man towered over Emily, Emily barely seeing him, her head spinning that much. She rolled to the side before the man's shoe hit her, but wasn't so lucky when she instead hit a tree.

The man bowed down and grabbed Emily, rolled her over and pulled her hands up behind her and bound them with something.

When he was done, he pulled Emily up on her feet. She swayed in the grip of the man.

"You're not tat good for a FBI agent." The man muttered and threw Emily down again.

Emily's head hit the ground and she was on the brink of loosing unconsciousness when someone moved her.

Emily jolted, but the person wasn't aggressive with her.

"Hey, shh, it's okay," A familiar voice told her. "I'm so sorry." It was Garcia, her voice thick with emotion.

"I should have seen him coming."

"No." Emily coughed. "You did great."

She opened her eyes and looked up into the tear-splattered face of Garcia's. She smiled and pulled her off of her lap.

"I'm fine." She interrupted Garcia when she began to contradict her.

"Where are the Unsubs?" Emily asked and turned her throbbing head around.

"They left."

"They did?" Emily asked unbelieving.

"Yeah." Garcia smiled.

"Already?"

"Honey you've been out for a while now." Garcia smiled sadly and patted Emily's head.

"Oh. Where's the guys?"

"They're in the SUV. Kevin's still out." Garcia looked miserable.

"Comon, let's go check on them." Emily said and stood up, her legs barely supporting her weight.

Garcia lent her shoulder as support and they made their way to the car, in which all the chairs in the back had been folding in a way to make a bed, and on that bed was Kevin.

Garcia instantly walked up and sat down next to him, leaving Emily holding onto the door. Morgan jumped out of the car at the sight of Emily and Garcia.

He started asking questions, if Emily was alright, if she was hurt and so on, but Emily held a hand up and he quieted.

"Do you know what those people wanted?" She asked.

"No." Morgan shook his head. "The took almost nothing, just the fancy things, like our phones and computers."

"Damn."

"Yeah, but it wasn't like we could use those."

"But maybe Garcia could have come up with something with the computers." Emily shrugged.

"Humph"

* * *

Thankfully, the Unsubs had been kind enough to leave them with their warm clothes, and they needed those. The sun had sunken a long time ago and it had taken its warmth with it. The small group decided to sleep around the fire, as close to each others as they could, to keep warm.

Emily found herself squished in between Garcia and Reid. The young doctor had been awkward first, but he had relaxed after a while, and he was now reading a book so fast Emily had barely the time to read three lines before he changed page.

The sound of the fire helped Emily to unwind, and she sunk into sleep, glad for being away from the throbbing of her head and battered body.

Emily didn't dream of anything that night, she was sleeping so soundly, Garcia had a fun time poking her nose, making Emily scratch but didn't manage to wake her.

* * *

**Please please review! I'll post faster the more reviews I get! (ohoh devilish plan!)  
**


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